Procrastinating, Kingdom Saving, and all other forms of Geekdom

It Shouldn’t, But It Does

I’ll admit that when I was younger, I was a very bad sore loser. I would get incredibly angry when I’d lose at something. It was especially bad when I’d lose at a video game against one of my brothers. This was especially vexing for me because they’re both better at video games than I am. Well, in general, anyway. I’m sure there’s a video game out there that I’m better at.

As I’ve grown older, that sore loser streak in me has lessened and, for the most part, is gone. I still have those moments, though, where it rears its ugly head. Take this morning, for example. Well, the morning I’m writing this. Not the morning it’s being published…

I was playing Madden.

I called a pass play. None of my receivers were open, so I had my quarterback start running the ball. He gets a yard or two past the line of scrimmage and a defender comes up to him. In an attempt to evade the tackle, I hit the button to spin away.

That’s not what happened.

Instead, despite being past the line of scrimmage, he threw it to the receiver assigned to that button where it was immediately intercepted. Plus, to top it all off, they threw a flag for me illegally throwing the pass. On every other Madden game I’ve ever played, it wouldn’t let you throw it once you got past the line of scrimmage. Now, it penalized me for doing it even when that’s not what I wanted to do in the first place.

I know that it shouldn’t have bothered me. After all, it’s just a video game. Plus, I was winning by a pretty good margin at the time. It ended up not making any difference in the game, but I still found myself yelling at the TV screen. Thankfully, I had already dropped Baby E off at school, so she didn’t hear me tell the Xbox what it could do to itself.

It only took me a moment to regain my composure, but I still felt crappy for losing my cool like that, especially over something so trivial. It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did.

I didn’t know. Started watching. Michigan played awfully. The had TWO pass interference wins. Thirty yards and two first downs. Blocked punt, interception, stupid sht. It was their game to lose. Ohio is on to Northwestern. I know major fans. May the team that plays better win.

How the hell did the game manage to do something that not only had you not asked it to do, but that it’s not programmed to do? That’s just seriously weird. I think you’re perfectly excused for having lost your cool on this occasion, Revis.